›› Speech Pathology
Speech and language
pathology is a fascinating area, and a job that brings great reward,
both personal and monetary. The job of a speech pathologist combines
neurology, psychology, therapy, teaching, and performance into a
fascinating and dynamic opportunity to work one on one to make a
difference in a client or patient's life. Speech pathology is a term
that refers to any disorder of speech or language. It can be as simple
as a lisp or stutter, or even terrifying social shyness, or as
complicated as the inability to learn and construct proper grammar.
Each speech pathology is unique, and they have a variety of origins.
Some speech pathologies have social or psychological origins. Most
stutterers, for example, have nothing wrong with the structure of their
brain. For some reason, usually relating to some phobia developed while
they were learning to speak, stutterers are unable to complete their
phrases smoothly. This is usually worse in stressful situations. But,
although stuttering is a speech pathology, nothing is physically wrong
with the stutterer’s brain. The role of the speech therapist
is half psychologist, half coach, to help the stutterer gain the
confidence to talk in public situations.
Unfortunately, more than one speech pathology goes much deeper than
that. Traumatic head injury, for example, can cause speech pathology,
as can Alzheimer’s disease, birth defects, and many other
conditions. People develop all types of strange and exotic problems as
the result of brain damage, and these often result in speech pathology.
Sometimes someone can think quite clearly in words, but frustratingly,
can no longer articulate his mouth to form them. It takes great
patience to cure this speech pathology (when it is curable, which isn't
always) as the brain has to physically rewire itself to make up for the
part that was damaged. Other times, someone will lose the use of a
whole group of words like, say, the names of tools. Other times, they
might have use of all of their words but no longer have a grasp on the
rules of grammar.
There are many programs in speech pathology available all over the
country, and it is a job that is likely to remain in high demand.
Speech language graduate programs are held at many of the most
prestigious universities, and benefit from the latest science in
neurology, psychology, and linguistics. If you like figuring out
puzzles while helping people, or if you are fascinated by the human
mind, a speech pathology career might be for you.
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A Healthy Dose of Good Advice
